DVB via USB

Here is an (non-exhaustive) overview of DVB/ATSC USB devices sorted by their required LinuxTV driver (if supported - and yes - most of them are). Generally, when it comes to support for USB devices, it is a good idea to try the current Hg sources because some device drivers can be very new and thus may have not made their way into the mainstream kernel.

Please help to keep this list up-to-date so that it is useful for everyone!

Introduction

For all devices shown below you need to load (if not compiled into the kernel):

- i2c-core
- crc32
- firmware_class
- dvb-core.ko
- dvb-pll.ko

and maybe others too. If the loading fails for any particular module you'll get a "unknown symbol"-message. Then take a look at dmesg to find out, which symbols (functions) are missing. After you've found out which module was absent, please come back here and add it to the list/device-entry.

Legend: the field type specifies the real USB-standard of the device

- USB1.1: the device can be run on the USB1.1 and on the USB2.0 bus but only with USB1.1-speed.
- USB2.0: the device can only be connected to a real USB2.0 port and runs with USB2.0-speed.
(delivering the complete Transport Stream to the software demuxer.)
- USB2.0/USB1.1: the device is actually USB2.0, but can also be driven on a USB1.1 port. (if not
mentioned elsewhere, these boxes can deliver the complete Transport Stream when running in USB2.0 mode)

Firmware

Most of the USB devices need a firmware to run. Some of the firmware files can be downloaded here: [1] or here: [2].

You need to copy the firmware to the correct place on your system. This will be /lib/firmware or a folder below it. Here is an example:

Additional technical information

This section starts describing devices which hit the market beginning of spring 2004. It does not cover TTUSB-based devices.

DVB-USB devices host-controlled

When first AC-Adapter-free USB devices (with the capability of receiving DVB Signals) hit the market, every vendor was using the generic USB-device-controller from Cypress (FX1 (AN2135/AN2235), FX2) as an interface between the DVB-hardware and the host.

As those controllers are very generic, one has to create (and download) an (small or not so small) embedded software to those controller to give vendor-specific and the wanted functionality. After downloading the so-called firmware vendors used the reboot-feature of the controller to re-enumerate with new USB Vendor/Product-IDs and a new USB-layout. On the host this looks like a normal disconnect and connect of an USB device.

Because the memory for storing the firmware was limited, vendors decided not to put any DVB-demodulator and RF-tuner specific code into the firmware, but only to implement interface functionality. At that time, the common way to control other components was I2C. The other necessary feature was data-streaming. With such a firmware, every functionality is done from the host - mainly the driving of the demodulator and the tuner.

DVB-USB device firmware-controlled

Another approach was coming later: When it started, that putting more memory on a board/into an IC with almost no increase of the BOM. Vendors started to put the demodulator and tuner-driver into the firmware. This was simplifying the host-part dramatically, because if you have a new hardware, you just need to modify the (platform-independent) firmware part and, as long as the firmware-interface is not changing, the host-driver stays the same.

The tuner sensitivity is less than impressive. The driver has trouble scanning channel lists with Kaffeine. If you use a channel list made with another DVB-T device, watching the channels isn't really a big problem (a few blocks are shown though). This could be a timeout problem.

There are several clones of this device: some have the AN2235 USB controller instead of the AN2135; some use a Panasonic tuner instead of the default Thomson Cable tuner. Most of the Boxes have standard Cypress USB IDs which makes it very hard to identify them. A HOWTO for this devices can be found here.

Note: Currently, two dib0700-based devices (Nova-T 500 and Nova-T Stick) are known to suffer from random disconnects after a few hours or days. A modified driver and new firmware (mailing list message) should help; the "i2c write failed" messages are reported as having been eliminated.

All devices below will be fully supported by the LinuxTV drivers very soon. The following modules are needed for these devices:

Comment: In case someone is opening the device, one can find the DiB7700-chips (B/C/D), which is demodulator and USB in one silicon. The USB firmware used is the same for all devices.

The dvb-usb-dib0700 module has a parameter which forces the activation of LNAs (Low Noise Amplifier). If you have reception problems you can try to load the module with force_lna_activation=1 and see if it works better. Normally the LNA is controlled automatically by software so, in general, there should be no need to force activation. If a device has an LNA, it is shown in the table below; for those which have no LNA, this parameter has no meaning.

LifeView

LifeView TV Walker Twin

Works well (two tuners).

The TV Walker twin contains a ULi M9206, which is, according to the website, a "versatile digital audio/video controller for various digital TV standards such as DVB and ATSC. M9206 supports Microsoft's latest Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA), which offer customers design flexibility and broad market coverage to both DVB and ATSC standards." A pair of TDA10046A OFDM channel demodulators and TDA8275A Silicon Tuners provide the DVB-T functionality. There is also an IR receiver which is presumably controlled by the M9206. Note: this device's USB cable comes with 2 USB plugs. This is not one plug per tuner; plug in both of them together to supply adequate power to the device.

Nebula DigiTV USB version - DVB-T

All devices below are fully supported by the LinuxTV driver. The following drivers are needed for these devices:

Comment: The programming of the MT352 is hidden behind the USB protocol defined within the firmware.

device/model

type

firmware name

comments/quirks

URL/pictures

TwinhanDTV Alpha

Alert! It seems like some of the TwinhanDTV Alphas need a newer firmware. The symptoms are that they can not find any channels. Hence they are unusable at the moment. See these posts for more details: [36][37][38][39]

- Zarlink MT352
- The new units use the Zarlink ZL10353 instead of MT352
- for pentype design it is unkown (but it doesn't matter at all, see comment)

Warning: When checking the table below, check the USB ID to see if you have an old or new revision of the firmware. The new version is shown near the bottom of the table.

Comment: The programming of the MT352 is hidden behind the USB protocol defined within the firmware. These boxes can only deliver part of the Transport Stream (using a hardware PID filter) which is not known how to be deactivated. (The driver was completely reverse-engineered without the help of its real vendor (assuming WideView is the manufacturer - UPDATE: the vendor was so kind to provide information about unknown commands, hence the driver is complete))

There is apparently another Yakumo model not covered:

Hi, I've purchased a "Yakumo Quickstick TV easy" and it doesn't work after compiling and installing the modules.
Its vendor and product id ara 0x14aa and 0x620, and it does not appear in modules.usbmap. So I think it's not defined... ßingen.

Firmware: The firmware for the new rev Freecom sticks (dvb-usb-wt220u-fc03.fw) can be obtained from here [45]

As a sidenote, also the Techno-trend USB IR works with patches (support for ttusbir included in lirc 0.8.2pre3).

DVB-S

SIEMSSEN & CO. - Opera S1

A similar deviece to the DVBWorld seems to be sold in Germany by one of the well known discounters and its german distributor is Siemssen [79] under the name Opera DVB-S1.
The card contains a Cypress CY7C68013A-56PCX to manage the USB-Part that seems to control a Xilinx Spartan(R) XC3850 FPGA. The tuner box reads Sharp, but I cannot find out more about it.

DVB-S cards in similar cases can be found on different asian sites
[80][81]

Despite of the fact, that all those devices look quite similar and have similar hardware, siemssen still claims that they are build completely different and their drivers can not be exchanged in any way.

Driver fully supporting this device is available in 2.6.22 and later kernel.

TwinhanDTV StarBox II - DVB-S (7021A)

The following modules are necessary in order to get this device running:

Comment: The driver is still a little work in progress. If you want to help the development, please consult the linux-dvb Mailing list. The frontend-part of the DST-driver could be rewritten to be used by the USB driver. Currently it is hard-wired to the PCI-cards.

Note: I (W3ird_N3rd) bought the Technisat Airstar USB DVB-T because this page said it would be supported. It is detected perfectly but it is not capable of locking onto any channel, 0 channels are found. My antenna is fine and the device does work on Windows, so somehow support for this device is broken. Don't buy it till it's fixed.

Hybrid (DVB/Analogue)

Hybrid devices have a DVB-demodulator and a analogue capturing chip. Normally they share a tuner.

Medion MD95700 (DVB-T)

All devices below are fully supported by the LinuxTV driver. The following drivers are needed for these devices:

Comment: The analogue part (handled by a Conexant CX25842) is not supported yet. The cx25840-driver from ivtv can be used to implement support.

device/model

type

firmware name

comments/quirks

URL/pictures

Medion MD 95700 4in1

USB2.0

-

The box also has a X10-remote (radio, not IR) included (supported by the atiremote-driver) and a USB2.0 hub (Tetrahub) (one additional USB port). Both of them are working without plugging the power adapter.

-

Attention:

There is a new Firmware 1.0.2.14 for the MD 95700 from Medion available.
You can download it directly from the Medion Webserver. [97]

Please read the Readme befor you flash the Box.

This update fix some Videoproblems.
But the new Firmware is incompatible with the old dvb-usb Driver's.
You need the new dvd-usb drivers (cxusb.c >= V1.5 and cxusb.h >= 1.2)
Have a look to the cvs-tree dvb-kernel/linux/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-usb [98]

Btw: If you use your Box under Windows, dont forget to update the Windows-Drivers too.

Comment: The driver is almost written. There is a version that has started to work, which we hope to release for testing soon. If you want to help to test the driver, or you want to help to develop the driver, please consult the linux-dvb Mailing list.

Afatech 9015

Anysee E30 (Plus) DVB-T USB2

The design of DVB-T E30 seems to be similar to the Twinhan Alpha Stick (same Tuner and Demod), but it doesn't work with the alpha-driver (vp7045) and firmware. Possibly some help from the new Opera DVB-S1 support, which also uses a Cypress CY7C68013 chip for USB microcontroller ([103]) (just an idea)? dvb-usb-vp7045 reported to load at [104] (an old message).

Note: It has been reported that Anysee has not been willing to help open source developers to write a Linux driver by handing out specifications. Any further information on communication with Anysee would be welcome.

Anysee E30 Plus DVB-C USB2

Looks like support for DVB-C version should be added to cxusb, since from the photos it looks like Conexant USB 2.0 reference design (source: IRC logs). Has two firmware files, anyseeAUDB.ROM and anyseeAUDC.ROM, which are needed for analog video (cx2584x/MAKO) only.

The device hardware might be similar to those supported by dvb-usb-cxusb, but the firmware API is different.

LifeView TV Walker DVB-T (P/Q/Hybrid)

P Stick

Now it doesn't exist in the Lifeview's page, not in discontinued products and not in External TV solutions, only a P Plus but i supuose that is different like the Q (now unsupported) and the Q PLus in External TV solutions. ¿Somebody can confirm this and also put info about the new product of lifeview if they're different?

Zaapa USB DVB-T Model: LR523 - This one seems to be exactly the same LifeView TV Walker DVB-T Q LR506, lsusb also reveals (idVendor 0x10fd Anubis Electronics, Ltd) and the idProduct is 0x0513 I don't know if is the same id product, anyone can post here the idProduct of lifeview's. I say this based on http://www.bandaancha.st/foros.php?temid=592815#633106 the post #44 says that in spanish, and also tell windows users with problems in channels reception, to use the driver and also the aplication from lifeview for the lr506, and seems that most of the users have their problems solved.

In the zaapa web page I found two usb tunners the first one the ZT- LR 506Q http://www.zaapa.co.uk/Public/ficha_producto.asp?CPRO=636 this one have also the same name that the lifeview ones, the image of this tunner is the same that the zaapa LR523 except that the 523 have the anthena connector oposite to the usb side (I can't find the lr523 in their web page) and the second one ZA-LR545. USB digital and analog TV tunner http://www.zaapa.co.uk/Public/ficha_producto.asp?CPRO=676 this one is digital and analog and i no have any idea if is similar the digital tunner part to the lifeview's LR.

In a kernel-2.6.22-gentoo-r1 with the firmware supplied by the ebuild linuxtv-dvb-firmware and DVB_CARD="tda10046lifeview" only, the usb is detected as a TV Walker Twin insted of a TV Walker DVB-T Q LR506 and the result is to fail triying to load the wrong firmware. This was with a similar to Q LR506 zaapa LR523 and also with the tda1004x module also in use by a saa7134_dvb, don't know if this can cause problems when i could load the correct firmware.

Somebody can make mechanism to detect this card as is and not as a TV Walker Twin? This is caused by a similar vendor and product ids.

Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick

USB2 stick. USB ID: 2304:0227.

Device identifies itself as a "PCTV 800e".

The USB stick consists of two boards: one with the USB and A/V connectors, the other with the RF connector. The two boards are joined(soldered) together with two 7 pin headers, one on each side of the board. I( User:Emeitner )am unwilling to unsolder the pins and risk damaging the